Old tower not booting up. Error message recognition?

B

bmigga

Member
Hey guys, my grandparents pulled an old tower out of their shed for my cousin to use but it won't start up. It's an older system running Windows XP.

Yesterday when I came over, the computer started with no problems, but was VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY slow. I left it on over night to load up all the programs. I came back and it won't boot up. I'm getting multiple error messages. Could you all help me out with these and let me know some suggestions?

Some of these messages might be a little off, because the monitor isn't showing all the text.

First error message:

Scan Devices, please wait...
press <tab> key into user window
Serial_Ch0 master: no device
Serial_Ch1 master: no device

Second error message:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing.
Corrupt:
Windows\System32\Config\System
You can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original setup CD-ROM (Which I Don't Have)
Select "r" at the first screen to start repair.
 
how many harddrives are in the computer?,one time i had the harddrives hooked up wrong and it took along time to boot up,after i correctly hooked up the drives it started right up.

you will need to borrow or get a copy of the same windows(home,pro, etc.) and then you can do a system repair and it might work.

Have you tryed to start it in safemode
 
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There is only one HDD, and one Floppy. I downloaded a ISO image off a torrent site and burnt to a DVDRW, and popped it in the CDROM, changed the Boot order, but it would not read the disc.

Just to clarify, I had an ISO file with Windows XP, I burnt it directly to a DVD using "Power2go" but didn't do anything else to the DVD. Should I do something else?
cabinfever1977 said:
how many harddrives are in the computer?,one time i had the harddrives hooked up wrong and it took along time to boot up,after i correctly hooked up the drives it started right up.

you will need to borrow or get a copy of the same windows(home,pro, etc.,
Click to expand...
 
Okay, how do you make it bootable? I'm sorry for asking. It's probably simple.. its a DVDRW though, so no problem. I can just rewrite over what I've already burnt to it.
 
Actually, I just popped the DVD into a windows 7 machine, and it booted up. So it's working, but the old desktop just won't start up. I booted into safe mode, but it took me back to the second error screen, stating the corrupt file.
 
do you have a dvd drive in the old computer?
when starting the old computer you have to press a F2, or f4 i forget which one and boot from the dvd to install before windows trys to start
 
I know you can find out through Disk Management, but seeing as how I can't access any programs in Windows, I can't check there.
 
it will say on the front of the drive, mine says comapactdisk-rewritable in small words on the front of mine and so i only have a cd-rw drive not a dvd,its all black so hard to read, and if its a dvd rom it will say dvd on the front also, if you dont have a dvd player just a cd player then you cant use a dvd in the drive and then you would have to put windows on a bootable usb thumb drive and boot from that.

i just read its only win xp you have,then you could also burn that on a regualr blank cd instead of dvd
 
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cabinfever1977 said:
it will say on the front of the drive, mine says comapactdisk-rewritable in small words on the front of mine and so i only have a cd-rw drive not a dvd,its all black so hard to read, and if its a dvd rom it will say dvd on the front also, if you dont have a dvd player just a cd player then you cant use a dvd in the drive and then you would have to put windows on a bootable usb thumb drive and boot from that.

i just read its only win xp you have,then you could also burn that on a regualr blank cd instead of dvd
Click to expand...

Well there's the problem. It's a CDROM. I'm trying to burn the ISO to a thumb drive now. I'll keep you updated. Please stay online if you can, you're helping A LOT!
 
Okay, I have a lot of files on my thumb drive, so before I try that, i'll try a CD. What is the first step I need to do in order to burn the ISO to the CD?

The only ISO burning programs I have are Power2Go, and the default windows program.

For instance, when I right click the ISO file, I receive the following options under "open with.."

1. power to go
2. windows disk image burner

Which should I choose?
 
probally power2go or anyone that can burn a iso to disk, and aslong as the iso you got is already bootable it should boot after you burn it to disc, dont forget to burn at a low 4x or 8x speed or it will have errors,i use 4x speed
 
I burnt it at 10x (which was the slowest option)
It's burning now.. i'll let you know once it's done.
cabinfever1977 said:
probally power2go or anyone that can burn a iso to disk, and aslong as the iso you got is already bootable it should boot after you burn it to disc, dont forget to burn at a low 4x or 8x speed or it will have errors,i use 4x speed
Click to expand...
 
Now, it's done. Just to be sure, the only thing I have to do on the desktop is change the boot order, pop in the CD and restart the computer.. correct?
 
Okay, I changed the boot order, and the first error message came up (see original posting) BUT it quickly went away, and came up with a screen that said "Press any key to boot from CD" so I pressed the space bar.

Then it said "press F2 to enter automated system recovery"
I pressed F2.
Then it came up with a page that said

"Please insert the disk labeled:
Windows automated system recovery disk into the floppy drive
Press any key when ready."
 
I pressed a key and it entered a setup menu that said "Loading setup files"
Now a partition menu has come up asking to select or delete a partition..

9307 MB Disk 0 at ID 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
C: Partition1 [Unknown] 29306 MB (29306 MB Free)
9540 MB Disk 0 at ID 1 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
D: Partition1 (LYN) [Fat32] 19540 MB (16056 MB Free)


Should I restart and let it go through with out pressing F2? Or can I do what I need to do from the Partition screen? If it's possible, I wouldn't mind isntalling a clean install of XP. I don't need any old files from this thing.
 
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